After the sirens: Lebanon's first responders swing between duty and grief

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. The Picture Show After the sirens: Lebanon's first responders swing between duty and grief May 21, 202612:13 PM ET By Diego Ibarra Sánchez The father of Hussein Jaber, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, on May 12, cries during the funeral ceremony in Sidon the following day. Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR hide caption toggle caption Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR SIDON, Lebanon — In this southern Lebanese city, Nareej Ramal is weeping in the arms of her father-in-law; the civil defense uniform her husband, Hussein Jaber, wore every day is draped around her shoulders like a final embrace. Jaber, 32, a veteran first responder with Lebanon's interior ministry, was killed along with his colleague Ahmad Noura, 45, by an Israeli drone on May 12 in Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, as they tried to rescue a man wounded in another strike moments earlier.

His death came just days before Ramal and Jaber's first wedding anniversary. The two men were the latest of over 100 first responders killed in Israeli airstrikes since the war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah began on March 2. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that began in April has not slowed Israeli attacks.

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Sponsor Message Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes, without providing evidence, claims Lebanon's health ministry denies. International law protects hospitals, rescue teams and ambulance crews. "But what we see now, no, it's not that," says Mona Boud Zeid, the director of Al Najdeh al-Shaabiyeh Hospital, which treats the wounded in southern Lebanon.

From the hospital's location in Nabatieh, she can see the airstrikes. "It's like what we see now in Gaza. Maybe our hospitals, our nurses, our doctors will go through the same.

" Gaza's health ministry says Israeli attacks killed more than 1,700 medical personnel and first responders during the war. Hundreds of mourners march on April 30, 2026, behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR hide caption toggle caption Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR Fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carry their colleagues' coffins, draped with Lebanese flags, on their shoulders as mourners gather and weep in southern Lebanon on April 30, 2026.

Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR hide caption toggle caption Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR Hundreds of mourners march behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics on April 30, 2026, who were killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR hide caption toggle caption Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR According to the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, which has personnel at the Nabatieh hospital, Jaber and Noura were killed after rushing to the scene of an earlier strike. A third medic with them was injured.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.